Comcast and NBC Universal’s Hackathon Winners Announced

Comcast and NBC Universal’s first ever hackathon took place this past weekend, emphasizing the theme, “Help Shape the Future of Media & Technology.” Competitors in the area of digital content and innovation were invited to the new NBCU Technology Center for prizes reaching up to over $5,000 in cash for the biggest winner.

Announced today, this lucky grand prize winner of the NBC news challenge was Thumbnail, which delivers news stories based on a user’s activity and how much time they have to digest content. Other winners spanned 12 categories, judged on creativity, impact, design, and simplicity.

TrendTV came out on top of the NBC Universal media labs challenge. The platform releases short-form video content based on an individual viewer’s interests, as determined by examining his or her hashtags.

Judges, 12 in total, for the hackathon included various personnel from NBC, Universal, and Comcast. Hackathon teams had the opportunity to work with Gracenote, Beamly, AngelHack, Jawbone, and other application program interfaces in addition to those availale through NBC Universal and Comcast themselves.

The Comcast NBC Universal Hackathon winners include the following:

NBCUniversal Media Labs Challenge Winner:

TrendTV delivers short form video content that is tailor-made for the consumer. By tapping into the user’s hashtags, TrendTV finds content of interest for the viewer, while additionally showcasing top trending content with mass appeal on the device.

Grand Prize/NBC News Challenge Winner:

Thumbnail redefines how news is delivered, while engaging the next generation of news consumers. Users inform Thumbnail how much time they have and what they are doing to receive custom news stories based on their activity and timeframe. Based on behaviors, Thumbnail will start to learn what kind of news a user prefers, giving a unique, tailored experience. Thumbnail takes news consumption one step further by incorporating a “do” button to allow consumers to take related action. For example, an article on the environment would bring you to a website to make a donation or actively engage in the cause. Members of this team all hail from the RAPP agency.

Universal Digital Marketing Challenge Winner:

Scenes is a mobile application that allows media companies to release select scenes from films and television shows via written word scripts. Scenes lets two or more users reenact the clips, thereby engaging audiences after a show or film has already launched.

Heart Throb lets viewers discover the most “heart-throbbing” moments in entertainment by connecting your wearable heart rate monitor to Comcast’s Xfinity X1. This app allows users to see how they physically react to their favorite television and movie scenes.

Comcast and NBC Universal’s Hackathon Winners Announced was last modified: August 15th, 2017 by Wrap PRO Staff